I don’t know about the rest of you, but Sheryl and I were transfixed last night, watching the helicopter departure of Yasser Arafat from Ramallah on CNN. Despite the unrelenting anti-Israeli commentary of their “Chief International Correspondent” Christiane Amanpour, it was great theatre. (Note to Christiane: Even many Palestinian officials are now admitting the Al Aqsa Intifada was a tragic mistake for their people. That was Arafat’s doing, not Israel’s.)
Will Yasser return? Who knows? But I suspect, even though some worry the Palestinian caudillo is once again playing possum, this is the end of an era. We are beginning the next chapter in the endless Arab-Israeli conflict. Who knows what that will bring? With the election, events in Iraq and departure of Arafat all on top of each other, my head is swimming. It’s a difficult time to be a fiction writer. The inventions of history are far more fascinating than anything any one human could conceive.
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20 Comments
1. TmjUtah:OT -
Pentagon press conference with the ordie major who REMOVED AND DESTROYED THE MATERIALS AT AL QAQAA….C-SPAN and I think it may be on FOX.
The major saw no seals. The media is frothing.
Oct 29, 2004 - 9:31 am 2. Mike_Nargizian:Think so Roger?
How’s this.
John Loftus said last night on the radio that it is suspected that Arafat has AIDS and that is his “”blood condition”" and explains his weight loss and many other symptoms. I don’t know if people here are aware that it is generally known that Arafat is a homosexual and a pedophile.
And in the “macho” and Arab/Muslim culture the former is bad enough let alone the latter.
As far as what will change. NOTHING.
The entire corrupt Tunisian gang has destroyed and corrupted the Territories and none has the power to hold all the competing factions together.
It may speed up the Civil War though.
It will be interesting to see how the Arabs who all HATE him publically fawn over him like the phony Mafia thugs they all are (Sonny’s funeral Bronx Tale) and watch how CNN and the alphabet stations rewrite the “history” of this corrupt murderous insane thug!
Channel 5 here last night already gave a 30 second history of how he “accepted Israel” in the late 80’s leading to a “peace” agreement.
No mention of Munich, airline hijackings, suicide bombings being taught to elementary kids, murdering and torturing of American diplomats in the 70’s and months ago in Gaza, etc… etc..
Oh, and he was born in Egypt to a “Palestinian” father…. LOL!!!! that was Channel 5’s Orwellian version last night.
Oct 29, 2004 - 9:48 am 3. nelson ascher:I do hope he becomes a martyr soon. With the help of French socialized medicine. I still remember the good times when Eastern European leaders went to the URSS because of health problems and didn’t return.
But until I see Arafat’s corpse I’ll go on suspecting the following: the whole thing happened a bit too close to the election.
I used to think that, whoever’s elected, Bush would give, on the next day, Sharon the green light to deal with the old terrorist as he wants.
If I were Arafat, I’d like to be as far as possible from the IDF and as close as possible to Chirac on November 3.
I know this sounds a bit too conspiratorial. But that’s the nature of the region.
Let’s see.
Oct 29, 2004 - 10:03 am 4. Charlie (Colorado):Since being boiled in oil isn’t an option, I’ll accept him dying of whatever.
Oct 29, 2004 - 10:10 am 5. Buddy Larsen:OT, but your post said as a fiction writer you’re seeing life out-leg art: Ya shoulda seen the press conference I just watched (the same as TmjUtah’s). You wouldn’t think of trying to novelize those screechingly insipid rapid-fire, harsh-toned, accusatory, dripping-with-contempt reporters, having sized up Major Austin Pearson as not a professional P.R. wordsmith but rather a man of deliberate action attending his first press-conference, and doing so as the sacrificial lamb (or more precisely the reporters’ ticket to their 15 minutes of stardom).
By predator-sense, they decided en-masse (unless winked & nodded beforehand) to gang/clusterf**K/stampede him, if at all possible.
The good news is, it didn’t work; the major knew what he knew and that was that. In the end, he beat ‘em like red-headed stepchildren.
The bad news is that our returning warriors can be so shabbily treated by a hyena-pack of frothing careerist sell-outs, without their bosses immediately sending them over to the Pentagon to apologize on their knees to Major Pearson.
Oct 29, 2004 - 10:25 am 6. Lola:I don’t think he’s coming back, and good riddance. Read on another blog that it’s possible he has metasized liver cancer. Certainly the low blood count points toward some kind of blood disease. At his age, and his lifestyle, it’s more likely to be fatal.
Oct 29, 2004 - 10:34 am 7. RogerA:Charlie (c): Amen, but with one caveat: as long as it is excruciatingly painful.
Oct 29, 2004 - 10:38 am 8. StreetGOP:I think it’s safe to say, that This will not be appearing on Yasser’s tombstone.
This man along with Castro represent the last of the great “cold warriors”.. Unfortunately Europe has picked up where the Soviets have left off.. Which is why they will sorely miss the both of them.
Oct 29, 2004 - 12:11 pm 9. alcibiades:I’m having a hard time concentrating, too.
But just think, if we were ancient Romans, what an omen we could take this for, the passing of the evil one at the renewal of Bush’s term.
After he is dead they should dissect his liver and read the auguries.
But in a non-fictional sense, finally, finally, the opening we have all been looking for. It’s possible, I guess, that the territories could further degenerate. But the Palestinians themselves seem rather tired of this strife; they’re worn out with it. And don’t seem to like living under the laws of the thugs.
Well it’s the best opportunity we’ll see for years.
But then don’t forget the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
Oct 29, 2004 - 12:14 pm 10. alcibiades:I’m having a hard time concentrating, too.
But just think, if we were ancient Romans, what an omen we could take this for, the passing of the evil one at the renewal of Bush’s term. (If,er, that is the way things go. I’ll go sacrifice a bullock later.)
After he is dead they should dissect his liver and read the auguries.
But in a non-fictional sense, finally, finally, the opening we have all been looking for. It’s possible, I guess, that the territories could further degenerate. But the Palestinians themselves seem rather tired of this strife; they’re worn out with it. And don’t seem to like living under the laws of the thugs.
Well it’s the best opportunity we’ll see for years.
But then don’t forget the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
Oct 29, 2004 - 12:15 pm 11. Terrye:Roger:
You took the words right out of my mouth. as it were.
Strange times indeed.
Oct 29, 2004 - 12:26 pm 12. charlotte:“cynic” on the “Martyrdom” thread linked to an article that said:
“If Kerry wins, and Arafat gets out of his compound and travels abroad, as he is about to, Arafat would be in a perfect position to bring himself back to power,” a security official told WorldNetDaily.
True. And the calculus is smart on the flip side, as well. Were Bush to win, mount an offensive in Fallujah and suddenly strike at Iran’s nuke development sites directly or allow Israel to do so, would Arafat want to be sitting in Ramallah in the path of Iranian counter-strikes at Israel or as a target of Israeli “defense” measures?
The timing of Arafat’s acute illness is remarkable, coming on the eve of the US Presidential election. Also, perhaps the matyr billionaire has some banking business to do in Europe, as our counter terrorist money policy noose might tighten in a second Bush term.
Oct 29, 2004 - 12:34 pm 13. charlotte:Please make that “martyr” billionaire above. My fingers must have found the expression too ridiculous to type correctly.
Oct 29, 2004 - 12:36 pm 14. Chuck:“Who knows what that will bring? ”
Let’s hope it’s the certain death of Palestinian terrorists and all the anti-Israel Palestinians who tolerate the terrorists in their midst.
Stack them up like cordwood and call it an early New Year’s present.
Faster, please.
Oct 29, 2004 - 12:45 pm 15. Charlie (Colorado):After he is dead they should dissect his liver and read the auguries.
Why wait?
Oct 29, 2004 - 1:10 pm 16. frick:I generally think it is bad ju-ju, or whatever you want to call it, to wish ill on another. Even people with whom I heartily disagree. It just doesn’t seem like the sort of thing one human being should do to another.
But there is a category of persons whose demise I think it is ok, and maybe even obligatory, to root for. Arafat is one of the top names on that list. I wish him all that he deserves, and then some. He sure did earn it.
Oct 29, 2004 - 1:36 pm 17. jerry:Roger:
We at the Pentagon have called Ms. Amanpour the Angel of Death. Whenever she appears many people die. Perhaps this appearance will lead to social good.
Oct 29, 2004 - 1:54 pm 18. PeterUK:Amazing the things you see when you haven’t got a Stinger missile handy, eh Roger?
In the time left to him on this earth Arafat has gone to see his nearest and dearest,he has gone to visit his money in Europe.
It is hard to believe we will see his lower lip,quivering like a piece of raw liver amidst the sparse stubble of his disreputable beard,no more.The world will have lost a truly ugly man.
Oct 29, 2004 - 2:29 pm 19. RogerA:PeterUK: precisely, Sir. This is all part of a cosmic beautification scheme. As I recall some 25 years ago the moslem world was encapsulated by the west as a contest between Ayatollah Kohmeini and Yassir Arafat, about who could out-ugly the other. The moving hand, having writ, writes again and the world will be more attractive.
Oct 29, 2004 - 5:09 pm 20. Dishman:Khomeini’s departure was a fine piece of work. He ‘fell ill’ in mid-February of ‘89. I believe IRNA finally reported he was having kidney problems in mid-March. Finally, on June 2, after months of … feeling pretty much like he’d made the rest of Iran feel… he succumbed to general organ failure.
I’ve watched others choose to die. Normally, it’s a lot more pleasant, like a heart attack immediately after setting their affairs in order.
Mike_N… are you implying Arafat had some “personal involvement” with the young boys sent to blow themselves up in Israel?
Oct 29, 2004 - 5:53 pm